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Baidu boss
Robin Li:
"Take the lead" on chatbots
Photo: JASON LEE/ REUTERS
The worldwide hype about the capabilities of the chatbot ChatGPT is accelerating the race between the big tech companies in the USA and China.
The aim seems to be to integrate chatbot software based on artificial intelligence into their applications as quickly as possible.
After the US group Microsoft announced that it would invest billions more in the development of the ChatGPT program developed by OpenAI, the Chinese internet giant Baidu, CEO
Robin Li
(54), now apparently wants to integrate similar software into its internet search.
Investors reacted immediately to a corresponding report by the news agency "Bloomberg": Baidu shares temporarily rose by 6 percent on Monday, which was the highest daily gain in four weeks.
Many investors apparently see the next big thing in the increased integration of artificial intelligence (AI).
Chatbot ChatGPT, developed by AI company Open AI, is software that enables human-like conversation.
This allows users to type in questions that the program will answer in natural-sounding language.
However, it can also create its own texts or speeches based on a few key points.
The software, which is fed with enormous amounts of data, is currently available to everyone in a free test version.
The results are still often incorrect and scientists are skeptical about the hype, but this is not slowing down many investors and tech companies.
Microsoft boss
Satya Nadella
(55) has announced that ChatGPT will be integrated more closely into the US company's office applications.
The program could possibly also strengthen the company's own search engine Bing and thus change the type of Internet search.
The alarm bells are already ringing for Google boss
Sundar Pichai
(50).
However, analysts assume that Google's parent Alphabet has already developed strong AI bots and has so far only refrained from using them in order not to endanger the strong advertising business of its own search engine.
So now China's search engine giant is pushing ahead.
According to Bloomberg, Baidu plans to launch its chatbot application as early as March.
Similar to ChatGPT, users should be presented with the search results in the form of a conversation.
Baidu has been investing billions in the development of AI programs for years and has created the "Ernie" platform specializing in machine learning for this purpose, which is fed with large amounts of data.
Apparently Baidu's chatbot should also be based on this platform.
Such a chatbot could readjust the balance of power of the Chinese Internet giants: The Internet in China, which is largely sealed off from abroad, is currently dominated by Baidu, Alibaba, Tencent and the Tiktok parent company ByteDance.
Baidu, under CEO Robin Li, is considered "China's Google" and has been making efforts to accelerate its growth in the mobile device sector for some time.
Most recently, however, the group, which was valued at around 39 billion euros, had fallen behind.
In terms of advertising revenue, video usage and social media, Alibaba, Tencent and ByteDance have now left Baidu behind.
In the third quarter, the group only grew by 2 percent to the equivalent of $4.5 billion in sales and slipped back into the red.
The increased use of AI should not only bring significantly more mobile Internet users to Baidu.
The topic of AI is also crucial for the further development of autonomous driving, where Baidu is also doing well.
As a result, CEO Li cited the use of chatbots in December as an example where Baidu could take the lead over the competition, Bloomberg reports.
However, according to Li, creating products and applications for everyday life from artificial intelligence will continue to be a major challenge.
However, Baidu does not only have to keep an eye on US competitors such as Alphabet, Microsoft, Apple and Meta.
In China itself, too, numerous start-ups have dedicated themselves to the development of AI.
They enjoy high interest from venture investors worldwide.
The valuation of the ChatGPT developer OpenAI has now risen to around 29 billion dollars.
In addition to Microsoft, other companies want to participate in OpenAI as venture capitalists.
In mid-January it became known that investors such as Thrive Capital or
Peter Thiel
's (55) Founders Fund were negotiating the purchase of OpenAI shares.
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